Mollusks, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 2, 2021

Mysterious 'blobs' near Norway are full of squid mucus and embryos, study finds

Several years ago, divers exploring the western coast of Norway encountered an object they couldn't explain: An enormous, jelly-like orb, more than 3 feet (1 meter) wide, was hovering in place partway between the seafloor and the surface. A dark streak cut through the center of the orb, but the...

Apr 30, 2021

How scientists caught footage of 'the kraken' after centuries of searching

Architeuthis dux — the world's largest known squid — is surprisingly camera shy. The elusive giant squid has wriggled its way into folklore for thousands of years, inspiring tales of fearsome krakens with bodies as large as islands. In reality, A. dux is a tad smaller than that, capable of...

May 20, 2021

Bizarre, polka-dotted blob washes ashore in North Carolina

When a bizarre, white-polka-dotted blob the size of a person's palm washed ashore in North Carolina last December, rangers at Cape Lookout National Seashore weren't sure what to make of it. So the rangers turned to the public for identification help, posting a photo of the semitranslucent blob tangled in...

May 27, 2021

Glow-in-the-dark baby squid and tardigrades to be blasted into space

NASA is preparing to rocket around 5,000 tardigrades — those adorably pudgy water bears — and 128 glow-in-the-dark baby squid into space. The animals are heading to the International Space Station (ISS) next week as part of SpaceX's 22nd cargo resupply mission. SpaceX is set to launch the microscopic critters...

Aug 19, 2021

World's most elusive giant squid could be monogamous, female corpse hints

A female of the world's largest squid — sometimes called the kraken after the mythological sea monster — that was caught off the coast of Japan apparently had just one amorous encounter in her lifetime. The female had sperm packets from just one male giant squid embedded in her body,...

Sep 15, 2021

Giant squid: The real-life ocean Kraken

Giant squid (Architeuthis dux) are mysterious deep-sea predators with basketball-size eyes and tentacles that can stretch to 33 feet (10 meters) long. Giant squid are one of the world’s largest invertebrates and belong to an ancient group of mollusks called cephalopods, which also includes octopuses, cuttlefish and nautiluses. Giant squid...

Nov 18, 2021

Eerie video captures elusive, alien-like squid gliding in the Gulf of Mexico

A ghostly squid with huge, iridescent fins and funky, elbow-like bends in its tentacles is rarely seen, but scientists recently captured stunning footage of the elusive animal during an expedition in the Gulf of Mexico. To date, there have been fewer than 20 confirmed sightings of this deep-sea cephalopod, known...

Nov 29, 2021

What's the difference between arms and tentacles?

Octopuses are famous for their eight sucker-covered arms, whereas squids, from giant Architeuthis dux to the appetizer-size critters served at restaurants, swim with even more appendages: eight arms and two tentacles. So, what's the difference between these different types of boneless limbs? Squids, octopuses and their hard-shelled nautiloid relatives are...

Jan 18, 2022

World's deepest-dwelling squid spotted 20,000 feet under the sea

A team of researchers hunting for the wreck of a lost WWII destroyer ship in the Philippine Sea returned to land with another, perhaps even more exciting discovery: Video evidence of the deepest-swimming squid ever recorded. Cruising just above the floor of the Philippine Trench at a staggering 20,300 feet...

Mar 8, 2022

Ancient 10-armed vampire squid relative named for Joe Biden

Octopuses and vampire squid are famous for their eight arms, but one of the oldest relatives of the group that includes them didn't get the memo. This newly described creature, named Syllipsimopodi bideni after President Joe Biden, had a total of 10 arms when it was alive during the Carboniferous...

Mar 30, 2022

Weird-eyed strawberry squid spotted in 'twilight zone' off California's coast

On a recent deep dive into the twilight zone, a submersible hundreds of feet underwater filmed an unusual fruit-colored creature: a bright-red strawberry squid with eerie eyes — one small and black and the other large, bulbous and yellow. Oblivious to the video camera, the strawberry squid (Histioteuthis heteropsis) cruised...

May 4, 2022

Giant squid that washed up on a South African beach was 'incredible to see'

On April 30, beachgoers in Kommetjie, South Africa encountered a rare sight: a giant squid carcass glistening on the sand at Long Beach. It was incredible to see, Alison Paulus, a Cape Town resident and founder of the wildlife conservation organization Volunteer and Explore, told Live Science in an email....

Jul 8, 2022

Deep-sea squid mom carries dazzling pearl-like string of eggs

Extremely rare footage of a squid mom carrying a gelatinous string of glimmering pearl-like eggs in her arms has been captured in the dark ocean depths off the coast of California. Researchers from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) recently spotted the deep-sea squid (an unknown species in the genus...

Aug 18, 2022

Giant 'kraken' carcass with dinner plate-size eyes washes ashore in South Africa

The massive, sucker-covered carcass of a giant squid washed onto the rocky shore of Scarborough Beach in Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday (Aug. 16). The beast, which measured nearly 14 feet (4.3 meters) long, was the second giant squid to crop up on a beach in the region this year,...

Sep 14, 2022

Giant squid corpse with half-eaten tentacles stuns tourists on New Zealand beach

One of the deep sea's most elusive and spectacular creatures, the giant squid (Architeuthis dux), recently astonished a group of tourists after it washed up as a half-eaten corpse on a New Zealand beach. A tour guide who was leading the group at the time described the chance finding as...